What are your favorite games that you never see mentioned anywhere?
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Fahrenheit/ Indigo Prophecy, an early David Cage/ Quantic Dream game from the same people who made Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls, and Detroit: Become Human
I haven't played it in forever so I'm not sure how well it holds up (if at all) and I also have a love/hate relationship with it.
It has one of the single worst/ cheap levels of any game I have ever played*, and in the very last level the story really shits the bed. On the other hand it was doing things at the time that I still haven't seen in other games. (I haven't gotten around to playing his other games so he might be doing similar things in them). In terms of attempting to evolve the way stories are told in games it was truly groundbreaking and unique for its time.
I still have fond memories of playing it despite it's flaws. I'd say it's worth playing for anyone interested in a older game that does some really interesting things from a story telling perspective and/or people who are fans of the later games and are curious to see where it started. As long as you can make it through the QTE level with your sanity intact and are prepared for the story to get stupid right at the end- it's worth a playthrough imo
*Even though I hate the level, the concept behind it is actually pretty cool. A malevolent force tries to kill the player character by throwing his apartment at him. The problem is it's a 4 1/2 minute QTE sequence that requires precise timing and you can't mess up even one time or you have to start the entire thing over from the beginning. You also have plenty of time to wonder why the force never varies it's strategy of throwing one object at a time. Good idea, terrible execution.
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The Thief series. I LOVED the first one especially, Thief the Dark Project. Medieval (low magic fantasy?) stealth shooter. The more valuable you pick up directly translates to what you can buy as a load out for the next level so you're encouraged to explore, though even the low level enemies can kick you ass so you have to be sneaky. Actually great stealth mechanics even for an old game. The world building is amazing, with it's own lore, culture and slang. The plot of the games are also great.
The Kingdom of Loathing is a game I've played almost non-stop since about 2003. Web based and free, it's based off of old text based games. But it's fun. Really fun. And hilarious. The currency is meat. The classes are goofy. Saucerer? Disco bandit? Seal Clubber? A lot of games deal with things like power creep or inflation, or how the heck to get people to actually help pay for it. This game solves problems like these elegantly. The user base is fun and friendly and corporative, there's always new stuff coming out to try, they do a holiday special every year, and all the pictures are crudely drawn stick figures.
The Kingdom of Loathing
I can't believe that game is still around lol. It was probably 2009 or so when I logged in last. I had ascended 3 times and figured I had pretty much seen all there is to see. So cool to see they are still around and doing well. I guess I'm going to have to playthrough it at least one more time
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The Adventures of Lolo - a puzzle game on the NES. There were 1 or 2 sequels depending on how you count and they were fun too.
Itâs a puzzle game with fairly simple mechanics but surprising complexity and difficulty. I beat both US versions and designed levels for a knockoff but have never met anyone in person that has heard of it.
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The original Master of Magic for DOS. It's STILL being actively modded 32 years post release and has never quite been duplicated.
The Age of Wonders series does a fairly good job with the feel, but it's just not the same.
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Warzone 2100.
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Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup
I have been playing this game my entire life on/off, and have the most hours in, but I have never beaten it. I came close 1 fucking time, and I will forever remember the one dumb mistake I made that lost it for me just on the cusp of victory.
One day...
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Receiver
So good. The slight differences between weapons means that the muscle memory you've built up ends up tripping you on the next run.
It discourages the use of muscle memory altogether. One of the things that make it so good is that it requires focus. It's not the sort of game you play while listening to music or second-screening a show. It doesn't ask much, just a bit of care and attention, but it takes all of it.
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I remember Kinetica! Loved playing it when I was younger. Still have the disc.
It was a great concept, well executed for its time.
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Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup
I have been playing this game my entire life on/off, and have the most hours in, but I have never beaten it. I came close 1 fucking time, and I will forever remember the one dumb mistake I made that lost it for me just on the cusp of victory.
One day...
God tier game. I've never even been close to beating it.
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Armadillo Run
Robot Alchemic Drive (R.A.D.)
The Saboteur
Saboteur was unexpectedly good
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Kinda cheating, since this game (hell, entire series; linking my fave entry) has kind of a cult following in Central/Eastern Europe.
Oof, my favorite! It was too good for it's time.
Gothic 1 is one of the most difficult RPG I've ever played, in terms of quest. The sequel, I'd still play it if only it ran on my devices.
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Shadowgate / Deja Vu / The Uninvited (NES)
Uniracers (SNES)
Custom Robo (GC)
Lost Kingdoms (GC)
Baiten Kaitos (GC)
Man Uniracers is so good, my friends and I would have huge tournaments. Too bad Pixar got all uppity and claimed they had a trademark on unicycles. Good grief
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Blast Corps
Came here to post this. What a cool weird game just doing its own thing. I'm sure there have been demolition games since then, but the random mechanics of the dump truck (among other vehicles) made it so unique and creative.
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Tactics Ogre. I see people drop Final Fantasy Tactics as the greatest tactics game of all time. Then you always see Fire Emblem, Advance Wars, and Disgaea after. People sleep on Tactics Ogre. It's a mechanically superior game to all of the mentioned. It's story is equally as good as FFT. I think the graphics are better. It's a challenging game from the start. FFT was created with the Tactics Ogre director and lead artist to be a more accessible version of TO. People see 90s golden era Final Fantasy and automatically put FFT on a pedestal. TO is like Undertaker stalking AJ Styles ready to obliterate whatever is in its way.
Fight it out!
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The Strider reboot. I wouldn't have minded another one of them, but I guess I'll replay it again instead.
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Endless Sky
According to wikipedia it is a space trading and combat simulation game. Its free and open source, has a lot of content (even more with plugins). You do missions to get the storyline forward and to get money, you can also mine asteroid, trade with other planets, attack other ships and plunder them. You discover new species and Outfits to make your space ship better, etc.I've been playing a single ship only save this time around and it's been a ton of fun. I allow myself to use fighters if a ship has a fighter bay, but no escorts (except mission NPCs of course).
I don't know why but I absolutely love asteroid mining. It's not like it's deep or complex, but it just feels so satisfying somehow.
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Sauerbraten FOSS FPS, available in your repo.
Single player racemaps are fun. Get to the podium in the quickest time.Try these servers:
-Racing#1 2021 [rev]-
or
Racing Reloaded
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0AD FLOSS RTS, also available in your repo.
Excellent theming and challenges.
I tried this after seeing Action Retro use it a few times to see if he could make it work on older machines he was tinkering with. Love the old school/simpler FPS feel of it, and the lack of nonsense. Boot it up, play
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Legend of Legaia. Itâs a JRPG from the PS1 golden era, but it had a relatively small launch and basically zero marketing. It was completely overshadowed by other games like FFVII and Legend of Dragoon. It has a sort of cult classic following now. The story starts off as a fairly basic âworld is awful, kid gets a magic weapon to beat the big evil thingâ type of plot, but has a surprising amount of twists and turns.
The combat system is interesting, and hasnât really been replicated since. You string together a series of small attacks, to make larger super combos.
Fair warning, the US release is significantly harder than the JP and EU versions. For some reason, the devs multiplied all the enemy stats by 1.25, and slashed their exp/gold drop rates by 50% for the US release. So you need to grind twice as long to be properly geared/leveled, and the grinding is 25% more difficult.
I got to meet Legaia's creator Hidenori Shibao. He also created Lennus ("Paladin's Quest" that I enjoyed on SNES in my youth) and its sequel.
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Full Throttle.
I think of two things: asphalt, and trouble.
Man, I love this game.
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I tried this after seeing Action Retro use it a few times to see if he could make it work on older machines he was tinkering with. Love the old school/simpler FPS feel of it, and the lack of nonsense. Boot it up, play
It's like the best bits of Q3A and UT combined.
Just be aware, some other online players will modify opponent skins to be extra hi-vis(cheating).
Good to give you an extra challenge.
